In memory of our brother and son, Robert Bagnell,
who died moments after being tasered by police in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23, 2004. Bob was the 7th Canadian to die and the 110th in North America.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Retired boxing champion Shawn O'Sullivan says Belleville Police beat and Tasered him before charging him for assault and mischief.

"This is totally wrong. This is totally unjustified. It's obscene what they did," Sullivan, 47, told The Intelligencer Monday.

Police, however, said the former boxer was drunk, combative and resisted arrest.

The allegations of both O'Sullivan and police stem from a Nov. 28, 2009 incident behind a Coleman Street address.

The former Olympic medallist has made several public appeals for the return of 10 or more rings, including his two world championship rings, stolen during a May 12, 2007 break-in to his home.

O'Sullivan said Monday he'd been following a lead on the rings' location last November. While on the way home from a bar, he said, he spotted a man with whom he had earlier been talking about his rings.

The former boxer said the man's house was on the next street from where the boxer stood, so he walked into the backyard.

"It's dark now," he recalled thinking. "I didn't want to scare him. I said, 'Yo, bro!' just to get his attention."

But as soon as the man rose, O'Sullivan said, the man's body language seemed to indicate he was angry.

"Next thing I see him ... running at me," he said. "I thought, 'Aw, no. He's going to punch me.' Sure shootin' -- he punches me on the right eye." O'Sullivan said he returned the punch and the man ran inside to phone police. Two police officers soon arrived.

"I had my hands up, more or less (saying), 'Hey boys, how's your night?' at which they don't respond," said O'Sullivan. Instead, he said, the officers twisted his arms behind his back, holding his wrists above his shoulder blades and threw him to the ground. "They held me down and start stomping on the backs of my thighs and my calves," he said, adding one officer then grabbed the hair at the back of his head, then slammed his forehead onto a wooden post.

He said the officers by that point had yet to speak to him, and though he hadn't resisted, O'Sullivan said he was eventually told to "stop resisting." O'Sullivan said one officer held him upright while another stepped in front of him while holding a Taser-like device. "I said, 'Why are you doing this? What's going on here?'" he said. The weapon appeared to misfire on the first try. O'Sullivan said its prongs lodged in his shirt but no real shock followed. The officer collected the prongs, stepped back, reloaded and fired again, according to O'Sullivan.

As the weapon shocked him, O'Sullivan said, he thought of Robert Dziekanski, who in 2007 died after being shocked repeatedly with a similar device wielded by Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in Vancouver.

"The Taser was sending electric shocks through me. You saw Dziekanski. I didn't want to give these little bastards the benefit of seeing me like that," he said. "This Taser was not going to beat me. I was standing upright, tight as a board."

After being shocked he was placed in a headlock by a cop who "flips me over his back, and then they start stomping me again," O'Sullivan said.

He claimed his head was again hit against an object.

He said he still suffers from knee and joint pain as a result of the incident, though his facial injuries have healed.

The official police version of the encounter differs substantially from O'Sullivan's account. A police press release said officers responded to a disturbance reported at 8:06 p.m. "The victim reported he had been punched in the face by the suspect and the rear door had been damaged as a result of the suspect forcing his way into the residence," said the release, identifying the suspect as O'Sullivan and placing him at the rear of the home.

"Mr. O'Sullivan showed signs of intoxication and was in an agitated state," said the release. "When approached by police he refused to comply with their verbal commands and took a combative stance with police. "After further attempts to communicate with Mr. O'Sullivan the conducted-energy device was deployed," it said, adding that "throughout the arrest he was physically resistant."

Taser is a brand name for one conducted-energy device.

The release said the boxer was taken to the police station, where he was examined by Hastings- Quinte Emergency Medical Services staff, who told police no further medical treatment was required.

O'Sullivan was charged with assault and mischief and released pending a Feb. 11 court appearance.

Belleville Police Deputy Chief Paul VandeGraaf declined to discuss specifics of the case Monday. "There's a criminal investigation and it's before the courts, so we're really limited as to what we can talk about on that one," he said. "So any facts we release to you may jeopardize the court case."

"I can tell you that Shawn O'Sullivan's not put in an official complaint with us, but that's about all we can talk about," VandeGraaf added.

O'Sullivan said he will "of course" file an official complaint, but doesn't know the process. He said the report of his allegedly damaging the door and entering someone's home is "pure bunk."

He has said publicly that he suffers from brain damage caused by his boxing career; the injury results in slurred speech, memory problems and more.

O'Sullivan was also quick to note he had been drinking alcohol before the incident but wasn't out of control. "Was I drunk? Honest to God, I may have -- if there was a Breathalyzer -- blown over (the legal limit) to drive. But was I out of my mind inebriated? Never. I'm never going to wanna be seen outside in a drunken state. Because people will talk, and who the hell wants to hear stories of a drunken ex-fighter? I've got children -- I don't want to disgrace them."

O'Sullivan added he knew if he resisted police he'd only end up in deeper trouble.

He acknowledged he had dealt with police in the past but said he does not have a criminal record.

Asked why he didn't discuss the case until a Global News television interview Sunday, O'Sullivan said he didn't have an answer except that he was being asked questions and it seemed an appropriate time to mention the case.

But he again maintained his innocence.

"I don't want to fight with anyone anymore. I've had a lifetime of that."

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taser-Related Deaths = 1043+ in North America

See "A LIST OF THE DEAD"According to Taser International, the taser had nothing to do with any of these deaths. According to a Reuters investigation, Shock Tactics - Part 1 - The Toll, published on August 22, 2017, more than 150 autopsy reports have cited tasers as the cause or contributor to deaths across the U.S. That number may be higher; however medical examiners and coroners are often not impartial but are instead biased in favour of the Crown or, as has been shown, they are under tremendous pressure from - among others - Taser International, to make a particular finding.See Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions

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Taser International finally admits risk that their weapons may affect the human heart

RCMP - TASERS POTENTIALLY LETHAL

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My Brother - Robert Bagnell June 27, 1959 - June 23, 2004

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2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the "real world" safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

07. Robert Bagnell, 44 – Vancouver, BC - June 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis. Bob's autopsy report showed marks on his body consistent to multiple taser shots, which incidently could not be affirmed by the pathologist because she could not explain those marks.

09. Samuel Truscott, 43 – Kingston, ON - August 8, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Heart attack cause by drug overdose and "I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death" said Chief Coroner for Ontario, Jim Cairns

24. Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, MB - July 22, 2008 - tasered 1 time - the autopsy report says Langan's death was caused by a heart arrhythmia brought on by the Taser shocks

25. Sean Reilly, 42 - Brampton, ON - September 17, 2008 - Peel Regional Police - X26 - tasered 2 times - the inquest jury will determine the official cause of death, however, “the forensic evidence indicated that the force used by the officers, including the Taser discharge, did not contribute to his death"

27. Trevor Grimolfson, 38 - Edmonton, AB - October 29, 2008, X26 - According to sources, after he was pepper sprayed, Trevor was tasered directly on the chest 5 times and tasered on the back of the neck 2 more times - Edmonton police said he was only tasered 2 times but testing on the tasers proves otherwise - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium brought on by drugs

29. Grant William Prentice, 40 - Brooks, AB - May 6, 2009 - RCMP - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity and "the medical examiner also concluded the taser did not play a role in the death"

Ain't it the truth!

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80% percent of the population could be moved in either direction

Human rights activist Susan Sontag, when asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.

THE Successes AREN'T the Problem

"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death and/or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are nonlethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident." Dave Siegler, father of Raymond Siegler, who died on February 12, 2004

The artistic side of Robert Bagnell

WE KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

ROBERT ANGLEN

Robert Anglen, a reporter with The Arizona Republic, documented the first 167 Taser-related deaths. Mr. Anglen launched a journalistic investigation of Taser International, linking the Taser to multiple deaths, among other eye-openers.

At the 2005 Arizona Press Club Awards, Mr. Anglen won first place in the Investigative reporting category. He was the recipient of the Don Bolles Award for his report entitled "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun'. “As part of an extraordinarily thorough investigation of Taser International, Anglen uncovered ‘smoking gun’ documents that showed the manufacturer was heavily involved in the key study that purported the devices are safe. Anglen also uncovered conflicts of interest and documented wide-spread problems with Taser safety — a matter of national and international public interest.”

In 2006, Mr. Anglen was a runner up for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian wrote “Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter, pure and simple. Clearly, he is a reporter who, once he sinks his teeth into something, stays with it until the story is done. His ongoing work around the company that makes Tasers speaks to that."